-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- A 56-year-old married woman has won half of the second-largest Mega Millions jackpot in U.S. history and has taken the cash option , which after taxes , will be about $ 120 million , Georgia Lottery President Debbie Alford said Wednesday .

Ira Curry , of Stone Mountain , came to the lottery office with the winning ticket of hand-picked numbers , a mix of family birthdays and the lucky number 7 . She did not appear at the afternoon lottery announcement in Atlanta .

Curry bought the ticket at the end of the day Friday and it was a last-minute decision , Alford said .

Alford gave a few details about Curry , saying she is married and had her daughter check online for the winning numbers after a radio announcer mentioned 7 was the Mega ball number .

Two tickets matched the winning numbers in Tuesday night 's $ 648 million jackpot . Curry 's half of the cash option comes to $ 173,819,742.50 , before federal taxes -LRB- 25 % -RRB- and Georgia taxes -LRB- 6 % -RRB- , officials said .

According to CNN 's calculation , the payout will net her $ 119,935,622.32 .

It will take one to two weeks before Curry will get her check , Alford said .

Curry bought her winning ticket in Atlanta at a Gateway Newstand in the lobby of an office building near the city 's Buckhead community ; the other ticket was sold in San Jose , California , lottery officials said .

'' -LRB- Curry -RRB- had the radio on , and the announcer was talking about the Mega ball , which was seven , '' Alford said . So Curry called her daughter and `` between tears of joys and laughter , '' the daughter relayed to her mother that she 'd won , the lottery president said .

Curry told Alford , `` I was in a state if disbelief . I still did n't believe it when my daughter told me , '' Alford said .

No lotteries in these 7 states

Alford said she suspects Curry called her boss to say she would n't be coming in to work because Curry met with lottery officials between 11 a.m. and noon . Curry told lottery officials she had n't had time to think about what to do with the money .

The winning numbers were 8 , 14 , 17 , 20 and 39 , with a Mega ball of 7 .

Twenty ticket holders will win $ 1 million after matching all the numbers except the Mega ball .

Strong sales boosted the jackpot to $ 648 million from previous estimates of $ 636 million and $ 586 million , lottery officials said .

That 's tantalizingly close to the U.S. record -- a $ 656 million Mega Millions jackpot split by three winning tickets in March 2012 .

This jackpot was so large in part because Mega Millions became tougher to win . The prize rises with each miss , and no one had won it since organizers increased the pool of numbers to choose from -- making astronomical odds even longer -- in October .

The California winning ticket was sold at Jenny 's Gift Shop in a San Jose strip mall , lottery officials said .

You won the big one . Now what ?

The chance of winning -- never particularly bright -- got worse in late October , when Mega Millions increased the drawing 's pool of numbers . The odds of hitting the jackpot , which were 1 in 176 million , are now 1 in 259 million .

You have more than 1,000 times better chance of an asteroid or comet killing you -- and that 's using the longest estimated odds for the celestial bodies -- according to Tulane University .

`` Winning the Mega Millions is akin to getting struck by lightning at the same time you 're being eaten by a shark , '' said Todd Northrop , founder of Lotterypost.com .

$ 800 million in lottery prizes unclaimed

Previously , lottery players chose five numbers , ranging from 1 to 56 . It 's now 1 to 75 . But the sixth , gold ball has fewer numbers from which to choose , as the pool decreased from 46 to 15 .

Mega Millions tickets are sold in 43 states -- all but Alabama , Alaska , Hawaii , Mississippi , Nevada , Utah and Wyoming -- plus the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands .

Lottery winner gives $ 40 million to charity

CNN 's Joseph Netto , Holly Yan , Chris Friedman , Christine Romans , Pamela Brown , Julie In , Devon Sayers and Eliott C. McLaughlin contributed to this report .

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Winner , 56 , will get $ 119,935,622.32 after taxes , CNN calculates

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Ira Curry of Stone Mountain is the Georgia winner of half the $ 648 million jackpot

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Two jackpot-winning tickets were sold , one in Georgia and one in California

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20 people will win $ 1 million after matching the five non-Mega ball numbers